Below Momma’s Money Tree has shared an excerpt from our upcoming book, Home Business Basics: Lessons From The Proverbs 31 Woman. For more information or to purchase the book, please visit our Products & Services page.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Butter Knife to the Rescue
Have you ever had to position a screw by turning it with a butter knife? How did it go? If you’re like me, you probably made do with the tool at hand, while simultaneously thinking, “I could really use a screwdriver right about now.”
The same situation can occur in a business. It’s possible to limp along with an approach that provides acceptable management of your time, money, teams, etc. But most of us don’t want “acceptable” management systems to set the bar for our entrepreneurial ventures. Instead, we want the best system or tool for the situation.
Although Proverbs 31 may not be able to give specific management examples for every entrepreneurial circumstance, we are able to learn from the themes in the passage. Let’s explore how the Proverbs 31 businesswoman chooses to manage the components required for the daily function of her ventures.
Leadership in Action
A person doesn’t have to read much of Proverbs 31 to realize that our businesswoman believes in hands-on leadership. She’s described as being an enthusiastic worker who actively participates in the selection of the wool and flax used for her fabrics (verses 13 and 17).
In verse 15, our entrepreneur is identified as having a team of servants to assist her daily activities. Today, these individuals would be considered employees. Based on the description of her collaborative leadership style, it seems that the Proverbs 31 woman would most likely have been found cheerfully working along-side her team to complete their daily objectives.
Although it is clear that the Proverbs 31 woman isn’t at all bashful about managing her team, it also appears that she makes a point to treat her staff with consideration and respect. In the same verse that describes our mompreneur’s wise provision for her family, she is also described as setting aside portions for her employees (verse 15). Rather than dressing only her family members in expensive scarlet-colored clothing, the Proverbs 31 woman chooses to offer the same quality of garments to her household staff as well (verse 21). Clearly, she regards her employees as teammates and coworkers – not just as hired help.
Award-Winning Customer Service
The Proverbs 31 description doesn’t include specific examples of our businesswoman’s system for managing her customers. That said, there is enough information to extrapolate a few key factors about how she would be likely to interact with clients.
Given the consideration displayed in the treatment of her staff, it seems extremely likely that the Proverbs 31 businesswoman would be just as thoughtful in her relationships with customers. After all, her local customer base is the people that she sees every day in her community. Multiple verses (11, 12, 15, 20, and 27) make it abundantly clear that our lady prefers to treat others in the manner that she would like to be treated. At the end of the description, verse 31 all but says that our mompreneur is a client relations superstar because the entire city pauses to publically commend her years of tireless service.
How does the Proverbs 31 woman accomplish this? The passage’s author doesn’t make a direct statement. Because her customers are local community members and traveling merchants selling her wares, our lady would probably receive face-to-face feedback during daily transactions. Additional information would have been relayed to her via client communication with her team. Regardless of how concerns are brought to her, it’s fair to expect that her management of client relationships to be timely, cordial, and highly responsive. This is the only kind of interaction that would cause her to receive recognition from a city full of clients who are extremely pleased.
The Art of Creating More Time
Anyone who has served as a caregiver or worked for themselves knows that there are never enough hours in a day. You can be maximally efficient and still find yourself with more responsibilities than time for task completion. As a mother and entrepreneur, the Proverbs 31 woman would be intimately acquainted with the daily struggle for effective time management. The passage provides interesting data on how she manages the conundrum.
The author of the chapter repeatedly explains that our mompreneur carves out consistent time to focus on specific responsibilities. Our lady does not attempt to multi-task while reviewing business strategy or family management. Instead, she has consistent morning or evening hours in which to plan her day, revise the assignments of her team, review household affairs, and adjust her business strategies (verses 15, 18, 27). Using this system, our lady would be capable of making consistent progress in both her personal and entrepreneurial life. She has implemented a system for regular review of the most important areas of her life.
Proverbs 31 shows that this noble wife has also established a system for creating more time for herself – by delegating a portion of her responsibilities to others. As an established entrepreneur with a venture that has been functioning for years, she is in a position to employ others in support of her varied enterprises. The author of the passage makes it clear that our lady is not bashful about arranging for assistance from others. She is clearly identified as employing household support (verses 15 and 21), and it stands to reason that she would take a similar approach to the management of her business.
Using this strategy, the Proverbs 31 woman frees herself to function more effectively in her roles as a wife, mother, community leader, and busy entrepreneur. At the same time, she gradually shifts herself into a managerial role at her business, because she is designing her ventures to function without requiring her daily presence.
🎶 🎵 Money, Money, Money… 🎶
The author of Proverbs 31 makes it abundantly clear that our lady’s business is performing well. The enterprise is directly described as being profitable (verse 18). The writer goes on to emphasize this fact by stating that our entrepreneur and her household are able to afford expensive linens and clothing without being fearful of the future of the family (verses 21, 22, and 25).
This level of cash flow might cause some to over-spend, but not the Proverbs 31 woman. Rather than ignoring the budget to indulge in spending sprees, she sets aside time to regularly run her financial numbers (verses 15, 18, 27). The fact that she is able to review her books on this level of detail, means that our businesswoman is capable of doing her own calculations. One might infer that she so well informed of her company’s profit margins because she has systems for consistently tracking her business expenses, income sources, and gross revenue.
When it comes to the daily application of her income, the Proverbs 31 description indicates that this ancient businesswoman follows a spending budget. In verse 16, she is noted to make purchases after carefully considering the need for the acquisition. When she finally buys, the transaction is completed using savings – not credit (verse 16). Her strategy is obviously helped by the fact that she maintains a long-range plan for her business and regularly retains a portion of the profit resulting from her work (verses 16, 18, 27).
Although Proverbs 31 spends most of the passage describing the clothing business of our ancient mompreneur, it briefly notes that she is working on a second income stream by purchasing land for a vineyard (verse 16). The author later mentions that the Proverbs 31 woman is confident in her family’s ability to weather harder times if they should present in the future (verses 21 and 25). If the dots are connected, the reader begins to see that one of this businesswoman’s strategies for protecting her family’s future is the cultivation of multiple sources of cash flow. Her other business is doing extremely well, so she activates a plan for use of accumulated reserves to begin the process of establishing her next venture.
Proactive Risk Mitigation
Because she has consistent strategies for managing her team, client relationships, time, and money, the Proverbs 31 woman places herself in an optimal position for the management of the long-term risks associated with entrepreneurism. Because she maintains a long-range vision for her enterprise (verse 16), this mompreneur doesn’t have to struggle when deciding on the next steps for her business. Instead, the “big picture” view of her business guides the strategies implemented in her daily management decisions.
The Proverbs 31 businesswoman takes a pragmatic approach to her venture. There is no idealization of her circumstances. Instead, her approach is to regularly monitor conditions, run the numbers, and work with her team and clients (verses 16-18, 21, 27). This allows our lady to identify potential threats to her business and pivot to preserve its growth and stability. Her business is seldom locked in a disadvantaged position because the Proverbs 31 businesswoman regularly adjusts its course to navigate the conditions of her day.
Given this style of business management, it becomes easier to see how Proverbs 31 business has grown to such a sprawling enterprise. It is managed by an owner with a system for regularly working on her business – instead of simply working in it. While the approach can be quite beneficial for a business, one might wonder how it affects the family life of its owner. We’ll explore the impact of this thriving business on the personal life of the Proverbs 31 woman in the next chapter!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Thank you for reading! If you’d like access to this section’s author notes and assignments, click here to purchase ebook access.
Until the next chapter, good luck with the growing!
D’Loreyn